I actually used veal instead of chicken..A key to keeping either meat tender is pound it flat..I got creative with the sauce as well..but the technique of how to prepare and cook the dish, I did not waiver. It was wonderful and flavorful. My husband said it was better than his favority Italian restaurant where he normally orders Veal Parmigiana

It is always a pleasure to have great success with the first attempt at a new recipe. I had never thought of adding salt (I used sea salt) and fresh pepper to the chicken before cooking. The entire family voted this dish as a must-have favorite.

My husband said I should be proud to serve this to any Italian! It was really good. I made the tomato sauce using the paste you show in the drill down. It says it is double concentated so I was a bit unsure of the amount needed but figured this is not an exact science and the end result was great.

This was really easy to make, especially since you didn't have to keep tabs on the chicken in the pan. You just had to take it up when the crumbs had browned.

I wonder though, is there any particular reason for the flour step before the egg and the breadcrumbs? Seemed a bit pointless when you added the breadcrumbs right afterwards.

Oh I forgot to add. I made way too much (3 chicken breasts for 2), so I had enough for 2 lunches and a dinner for myself afterwards. My preferred method of serving was to heat the chicken and put it inside a burger bun with a bit of the sauce.

This method of breading (flour, egg and then breadcrumbs) is actually a classic French technique called "paner à l'anglaise".

The flour is important to the process as it sort of acts like a glue once coated with the egg. This helps the breadcrumbs stick to the food better.

BTW - your suggestion for leftovers made me hungry :-)

Anyone have suggestions for good sides to go with it. I guess pasta is an obvious choice, but any others - maybe a vegetable?

I think that the lemon garlic rapini would go very nicely with this.
http://rouxbe.com/recipes/48/preview

Also the braised kale would be nice. http://rouxbe.com/recipes/1833
Or the roasted cauliflower http://rouxbe.com/recipes/928/preview

And yes indeed you are right this dish is particularly good friends with pasta http://rouxbe.com/recipes/1060/preview

Hope this helps!

The pasta was amazing with this, which was also wonderful. Thanks for the suggestions.

I made this recipe two nights in a row for groups of 14 and 10 and it came out fantastic. I promised a friend I'd make it for her birthday, and realized that normally when I follow recipes something gets messed up so I might as well do a practice run for friends at school. Both times I got nothing but complements.

I made this dish, along with the recipes on this site for brown sugar roasted carrots, roasted cauliflower, spaghetti with oil and garlic, and served the french fries as appetizers. Everything was wonderful.

I made this last saturday and my husband and I loved it!! The tomato sauce and the breadcrumbs really made this dish. Thanks for the recipe!

i made this dish last night and it was great! i am very much a beginner when it comes to cooking but this first experience was great. and my husbnd liked the dish! yay!

If I used eggplant instead of chicken, what steps should I do differently?

Cut the eggplant - one with shiny skin and firm - into 1/4 " thick rounds (skin on). Salt liberally for 30-45 minutes, then rinse and pat dry. This removes bitter juices and softens texture of the eggplant. Season and proceed as with chicken. Fry until eggplant is tender, then bake with sauce and cheese. Great stuff!

Thanks, Tony. What does "salt liberally" mean? Also, would the baking temperature or time be different if using eggplant?

A good pinch per slice of eggplant. Even if you think you're over-salting, the salt will be rinsed off. It simply removes bitter flavours. Bake at 400 F until cheese melts, bubbles, and goes golden. Remember that with baking temperatures, unless you're baking souffles or cakes, the oven temp can be anywhere between 350-425. It's then a matter of watching for the indicators that you're done.

the seasoned bread crumbs really make a difference. I will use less tomato sauce the next time, only just covering the bottom of the dish.
Hanna

This is a delicious recipe! Simple! The whole family loved it and even my pickiest eater drooled (20 year old pregnant daughter). I made it pretty much as the video explained. I am enjoying what I am learning here and contemplating staying around for a while.

My pan was a little small or i had too much chicken but that small inconvenience was over shadowed by how awesome it all came together!

I'm single and so I often end up just cooking for myself. Any suggesting on modifying the recipe for just me? I'm open to possibly making more and freezing it at some point during the process.

This recipe is easily scalable, so feel free to make either half or less than the full recipe. Also the tomato sauce can be made ahead and frozen into smaller portions. The chicken can also be cut ahead and frozen into portion-sizes...this way you can make a small batch whenever you feel like it. BTW - any leftovers of the dish will last for a couple of days in the refrigerator and they are super tasty. Hope this helps!

Hey awesome recipe! So Glad I found Rouxbe, but does parmesan cheese always have to be aged, and if so does it always have to smell and taste like.. poop? Because mine does and im thinking its just because its probably not that high quality.

Though Parmesan is classic to the dish...hence the name, it can be omitted. But it sounds like you need to buy some new parmesan :-)

It has been the best chicken parmigiana I ever cooked.
the video step by step is much easer.
I did my own tomato sugo,and I did sieb the flour:This recipe was cooked about 3hours ago at 5pm German time.
Thank you Rouxbe.
I found you when I was making a cake in a spain website the chef gave your name and here I am so happy,I love cookin and baking.and you rouxbe will be my teacher from now on.
thank again
cecilia

I did this recipe all the way including the bread crumbs and souce. In israel its usual to eat breaded chicken breast so it felt a little bit shame to loose the crispyness of the crumbs due to the souce. nether the less it was yami.